


Lean On Me

by ziaminmypants



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-05
Updated: 2012-08-05
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziaminmypants/pseuds/ziaminmypants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU- Liam is bullied at school all the time, Zayn steps in to intervene one time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lean On Me

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: ziaminmypants

Liam hates school. He hates everything about it; his classes, the teachers, the students, especially the students. He does alright in in his classes, for really, that’s all he has. He really doesn’t have friends, and the ones he does have are just as socially awkward as him. Niall has been his friend for years, but he’s just so painfully awkward around anyone but Liam that it’s hard for them to befriend others. Liam, though, doesn’t complain, in fact, if it could be just him and Niall for the rest of his life, he’d be happy. For everyone else in the world are complete pricks.

See, Liam isn’t popular or well-liked. He doesn’t have any special abilities or hidden talents; unless you consider the ability to get beat up every day a hidden talent. If that’s so, Liam really wishes he didn’t have it. He’s the awkward kid that sits in the front of the class, not because he’s a particularly smart kid or a teacher’s pet, but because he can get out the door faster so he doesn’t have to talk to anyone. He fears getting into any type of conversation that much. His parents are all the time trying to get him to branch out, but to no avail.

He gets his daily dose of insults and bloody noses. The fact that he’s awkward enough as is, seems not to be enough for the universe to laugh at him about, but the fact that he’s also awkward  _and_  gay seems to be a double whammy. He’s not a fighter either, so Liam just lays there as he gets punched or kicked or shoved. He just takes it because he’s learned a long time ago if he resisted, it would just be worse. He doesn’t blame Niall when he just stands by idly and watches in horror, for the blond also gets his share of beatings. After all, he is friends with Liam and everyone assumes he’s gay as well. Ignorant pricks.

Liam, though, knows that once it’s safe for Niall to make a move, he will. Walking over to his crumpled body and helping him up. He takes him aside, to an empty bathroom, and cleans the cut over his eye and presses cold water over the bruises in his skin. Liam is grateful to have at least Niall, someone that he knows cares for him, when no one else will. That is why they are best mates; while they may not stand up for one another, they take care of each other, and that’s more than either one of them can ask for.

He knows he’s an easy target. He doesn’t fight back; he even learned not to show any emotion at the constant verbal jabs to his ego. Liam just wishes it would all go away, and soon. He’s only got six months and he’s out. Graduation is coming, and he’s out of this school and out of this town. Niall and he have decided to go to a university that’s far away from the town in which they live in now. They both want to start fresh. While he does want to leave this all behind, he wishes there were one other person in that entire damn school that would fall apart if he left him behind.

Zayn Malik. He was a popular football player, always surrounded by the popular kids and was the source of Liam’s anguish. Liam had been practically in love with the boy since he had laid eyes on him four years prior. The boy had moved from Bradford and it didn’t take long for him to fit in. Much unlike Liam, he was confident and soared in athletics, which made him the fantasy of many girls dreams and Liam’s. While Liam pined away in the background for the past four years, Zayn hadn’t even acknowledged his existence. Liam wasn’t surprised, the one time they had actually shared the same five feet as Zayn, and Liam had made a complete fool of himself.

He had been too busy writing down some notes that he remembered from his last class when the collision happened. Books, papers, and pencils flew everywhere. Mumbling a soft apology, Liam bent down the same time at the other person and bumped heads. Liam looked up then and he felt like his heart had jumped in his throat. It was Zayn. Liam was freaking out so bad he stuttered out another apology and quickly fled the scene. He hadn’t talked to Zayn since then, and that that had been last year. He tended to avoid him after that actually; afraid he had killed any chance, which wasn’t much that he had with the boy to actually like him.

He wasn’t memorable, so he was sure Zayn had forgotten about that soon after it happened, but Liam couldn’t be too careful. They had several classes together after that, but because Liam sat in the front of the class and Zayn sat in the back with the rest of his friends, he never talked to him. That was the way Liam was, he just didn’t like to deal with stuff like that if he didn’t have to. Guess you could call him shy.

On this particular day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. In fact, it was just another day for Liam Payne. He got his morning insults as he walked into the school building and quickly dodges a group of guys who’s been known to shove him into the lockers, finds Niall, and heads straight to their first class. It’s not until after third period that Liam starts to think this day is different.

He’s in the empty hallway, crouched up against the lockers as someone, he has lost track who, is kicking his ribs and spitting out nasty things about him being a faggot and taking certain objects up his arse. Liam has safely blocked out the hurtful words, but it’s the kicks to his side that causes him to cry. His hands are up against his head, trying to protect himself from getting kicked, when he feels nothing for a few moments. The steady of kicking into his ribs have stopped, and he’s wondering, in vain, if his attackers have a sudden urge of pity on the boy and had stopped.

When he lifts his head, however, that isn’t want he sees. There is a scuffle and his attacker is being shoved into the locker. Liam can hardly see what’s happening through his tears, so he wipes them with the back of the hand, carefully avoiding the cuts that he notices are in his hand from the boots the boy who had been kicking them had on.

Once Liam has gained his eye sight back, he gasps at the scene laid out before him. Zayn has the boy shoved up against the locker, punching him in any available space he can manage. But it doesn’t take long before the other two boys in the group to pull him off and knee him in the stomach, causing the raven-haired boy to gasp for breathe.

Liam wants to help, really he does, but he can’t. He doesn’t know how to stand up to people like that, because if he did, he probably wouldn’t have been getting beaten up for so long. He just watches while the beatings that once had been happening to him are now happening to Zayn. There is too many of them, and Liam is sure if had been just one, Zayn could have taken them, even two maybe. But there are three, and it’s getting to be too much.

He has managed to pull himself against a locker, watching the scene unfold. The three boys are beating Zayn to a bloody pulp and Liam’s heart is breaking because no one that as beautiful as Zayn deserves this. Once the boys feel like they have accomplished their point, the leader is wiping the blood from his lip with the back of his hand and spits on the ground next to Zayn’s head. “Fucking faggot, protecting your boyfriend I see.”

Then he turns to look at Liam, who thought if he stayed quiet they might forget about him. But no such luck, and with one hard shove against the lockers, the boys are walking away, laughing and retelling how they not only beat the shit out of Liam, but Zayn as well, and wondering if the two are together. Liam wants to shout out at them that they aren’t, too protect Zayn, but he doesn’t want them to turn back and start again, so he stays quiet.

Liam looks over at Zayn as the boy seems like he is trying to lift himself off the ground. He fails, too weak to support himself, and then Liam is there helping him up. Liam puts Zayn’s arm over his shoulders as he makes his way to the nurses’ office, one he knows the path to all too well. The two boys don’t speak and before he knows it, Liam is sitting Zayn on the cot and rummaging around for some antiseptic, a cloth, and band aids.

He’s dabbing hot water on the cuts on Zayn’s face, trying to clean up all the blood when he finally speaks. “You didn’t have to do that.” He says, and if Zayn didn’t see his lips moving, he wouldn’t have thought the boy hadn’t said anything. “Thanks.”

Zayn tries to smile, but winces at the cuts on his lips, causing blood to leak out once again. The boys fall silent once more as Liam finishes cleaning up Zayn’s face and then, once he’s done with that particular part, he starts on Zayn’s neck and arms. And he’s sure there are more cuts and bruises underneath his shirt, but he doesn’t dare ask Zayn to take his shirt off because Liam might have a heart attack if that happens.

After Liam is satisfied that he’s done his best, he pushes off his knees, and heads to throw away the bloody clothes and put the antiseptic up. Liam comes back with a cup of water, offering it to the bandaged boy, who gladly accepts it and drinks all of it in one take.

“Why did you do it?” Liam is chewing on this bottom lip and not looking up at Zayn. The older boy just stares at him for a moment before answering. He’s much too in love watching how adorable Liam is to know exactly how to answer that question without being completely honest, and that just how he answers it, completely honest.

“Well, someone needs to stand up for you if you aren’t going to do it yourself. And who better to do it than the person who’s in love with you.” Zayn’s never been the one to beat around the bush on anything. He’s been known to be blunt and that’s exactly what has Liam sputtering his words and becoming ten times more uncomfortable with the situation at hand.

Zayn continues. “I’ve been in love with you ever since that day you ran into me in the hallway and before I could ask you anything, you were gone. I swear you should run field with how fast you ran out that day.” He’s chuckling at the thought, but Liam isn’t laughing, so he quickly stops.

“And I could never get you alone to talk to you. You were always with Niall, and when I’d try to make my way over to you, you were gone before I could catch you. And today, I just happened to be… to be skipping my fourth period when I saw the fight. So I decided it was now or never and here we are.”

Liam has been awfully quiet, and it’s kind of unnerving. Zayn’s fidgeting now, which is unlike him. But fuck, Liam isn’t looking at him and he wants to know what is going on in that brain of his. “Please say something… anything.” Zayn is squeezing his eyes shut, waiting for anything, anything at all.

“I-I didn’t know,” was all Liam could come back with. He wished he could say that if he had of known, he would have done things differently, stayed to talk to him or something. But that would be a lie because Liam is still fighting the urge to flee, even now.  It was his defense, and he had gotten really good at it.

“Of course you wouldn’t have known.” Zayn is standing up now, and Liam steps back, unsure what the boy is thinking of doing. He hears Zayn sighs. “Liam,” and it’s the first time he says his name, and Liam is looking into those warm honey eyes and is feeling warmth spread over his whole body, his stomach is fluttering and it’s a wonder he hasn’t thrown up yet. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

It’s not a question, it’s more a statement. He is sure if he really wanted to, he could move away, but with Zayn walking forward, he’s finding himself not wanting to flee this time. In fact, when those strong hands find his cheek and caress his skin softly, his whole body is leaning against Zayn’s and it feels a bit like home.

Zayn’s eyes close, and Liam notices how long his eyes lashes are and wants to take the time to count each one when the boys lips brush softly against his and now he’s own eyes  grip shut. The kiss isn’t hard, it’s slow and intoxicating and Liam has never had something so prefect. He’s not sure what he’s got himself into, but he sort of likes it. His lips respond to Zayn after a moment, and they stand their kissing slowly, carefully not to hurt one another’s cut lips. And while he feels a tiny sting as the cut on his lip is being stretched, Liam doesn’t care. Because the world can crash around them and he wouldn’t care, as long as those lips he has now deemed home were on his and those callused hands were grounding him down with their soft caresses.

Liam had been love with this boy for four years. And since the beating as started, Liam has finally found safety; safety in Zayn. He just hope he doesn’t wake up in his bed with his alarm blaring at him to get up for school.


End file.
